More than 200 Air Force ground crew reservists on Monday sent Defense Minister Yoav Gallant a letter warning: “If anyone in the Israel Defense Forces and the government thinks that the pilots are worth more than us, let them come down to the air force bases and take care of the planes themselves.”
On March 19, 180 reservist pilots and navigators, more than 50 flight controllers, and about 40 drone remote operators informed their units that they won’t be showing up for training in the coming week because of the judicial reform. They said they would devote most of their time calling for a dialogue and the defense of democracy, and noted that they continue to serve in operational activities in the army – just not in the following week.
Here is the full text, see the original below:
We, reservists and volunteers in the Air Force ground crew layout, those who treat, arm, fuel, check, and turn on the planes, refuse to do our reserve service until the judicial reform is fully implemented.
We won’t agree to be second-class citizens, the kind whose vote is worth less than that of the pilot who flies the machine we prepare for him. Not only pilots can paralyze the aerial system, we can do it, too.
If anyone in the IDF and the government thinks that the pilots are worth more than we do, let him please come down to the air force bases to take care of the planes himself.
So far, we have gathered more than 200 signatures from second-class soldiers and we are handling additional responses. See more than 100 signatures enclosed.
